The Marauders
by Siera-Knightwalker
Summary: Three deaths gives rise to three new lives. A tragedy lays the path to their new future. Lost and changed, they find their way for a new beginning.
1. Chapter 1

_Potter Manor_

James woke up at age four with a memory of a previous life. He remembered a younger bratty sister, a loving but harsh mother, and two best friends around whom his life revolved around. He woke with tears in his eyes and longing in his heart.

He didn't remember how it ended nor how it began, but he had lived another life. A life completely different from this. A life, he realized with dawning horror, that he shouldn't remember. He calmed himself before opening his eyes to the two familiar shapes of what he now realized were his parents. They didn't stay up day and night for him, but they were by his side at an instant whenever he couldn't sleep, when he had nameless nightmares, when he cried tears of grief for someone he could no longer recognize. Who were the two people that came in his dreams and nightmares so often? Who seemed to haunt every step of the way? Who were these two girls who he never seemed to part with?

...girls? He...was a female too, wasn't he? In his past life, he had been a female too, and yet it barely even bothered him when he thought of himself as male. He used to hate being female because of...blood?

He flinched at a memory of an unfamiliar yet familiar voice screaming.

His hands shook with fear, and his mind shied away from the memory. He didn't need to know that. No. He shouldn't know that.

Even when his parents tried to comfort him into sleep, he couldn't shake the bone deep fear that had rooted inside him. He didn't want to know who it was.

But how could he help without knowing who it was? He should know, shouldn't he? That could be one of his friends. Someone needed his help, didn't they? He should help when they needed it, shouldn't he? But then, why couldn't he shake this fear off? Why didn't he want to remember? Why did he hate himself so much because he couldn't make himself remember?

There was someone.

Someone who needed him.

Someone who he couldn't help.

Who was it...?


	2. Chapter 2

_Grimmauld Place_

Sirius woke with blood in his mouth and a name on his lips.

 _A vision of golden eyes, tear stricken face and pale skin that made me uneasy in a way I couldn't name._

 _"I'm so sorry! I'm so-"_

 _My eyelids grew heavy and the pain almost felt bearable. She was fine, it's alright._

 _"Don't- don't close your eyes. Come on."_

 _I could rest._

 _"Don't leave me." A broken whisper left her lips and cold tears found purchase on my collarbones._

 _My eyes flickered with the desire to open them. Reassure her. I wasn't leaving her. I just needed to sleep._

 _Seconds bled into silent minutes and a trembling, wet hand slowly reached for my chest. We lay there, silent as night. I only felt a soft warm pressure on my wrist. Her thumb brushed across my slowing pulse._

 _I faded._

I jerked awake with a thundering heartbeat, tumbling down my bed and halfway across the room. My throat was dry as the desert and I couldn't stop my trembling.

Did I-

No. Of course not.

That was a silly thought. It was a stupidly realistic nightmare. No way was-

My throat closed up at the thought.

"Master Sirius!"

"Kreby?" My voice was faint and broke halfway through the word. My voice was definitely male.

I sat staring blankly at the wooden floorboards while a thin, strange but familiar creature sat beside me.

"Master Sirius be getting cold on the floor." The creature gently lifted me and put me back on the bed. She tucked me under the baby blankets and slowly stroked my hair.

I turned, staring at the gentle creature. She was thin, wore rags and smiled like she had mother me herself. Her big eyes were bright and-

golden.

I couldn't stop the racking sobs that tore itself from my throat. My nose flowed and even when the creature gently hugged and comforted me, I couldn't stop crying.

I had died.

I had died in an accident with two friends; one, who was either dead or unconscious, and another, who watched me fade away.

Kreby rocked me, gently shushing me and every time I saw her bright worried eyes, I remembered her.

 _"Don't leave me." She whispered with a broken voice, and a heart full of grief and pain._

I closed my eyes in the same grief and the strange, loving creature gently rocked me to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

_Lupin Household_

Remus woke to a drab, silent room, confused. Stumbling as he got up, he left the room immediately, not noticing any changes. Panic and tears blurred his vision.

"Uh-" He paused outside of the door, stunned by the scene that met his eyes and at the lack of the memory of the name that remained out of his grasp. His hands darted to his throat, and he collapsed against the wooden door, breathless with the knowledge of the truth.

"No. No, no, no. No."

His eyes shut close at the memory of the crunching of bones, of his hand curling around an arm only to find blood spurting from the dismembered limb. Of the crushing of ribs. The last few moments when he saw a body curled protectively over the other. Of the single horrified glance at him before his vision darkened.

He gagged, and tears mixed with the searing smell of vomit until he could barely tell himself apart. His fingers tightened over his shirt until he was tearing into it, with the effort to stop. Just stop.

"Remus?! Honey, what are you doing?" A concerned yet caring voice spoke, and he turned around to face an aged but gentle looking woman.

"Mom?" The woman kneeled beside him, uncaring of the vomit. She ran a cool hand through his hair and pressed against his forehead.

"He has a fever." Remus let out a dry laugh.

"I'm dead already. What's a fever going to do?" The woman let out a startled sound before her lips pressed into a determined line.

"Shh. Everything is fine. No one is dead." Remus swallowed, then winced at the acidic tinge in his want to hope, but-

"Liar." He felt it down to his bones. He felt it with deep certainty.

All three of them were dead.

Another pair of hands lifted him away from the pool of vomit.

"Hallucination too. Come on, let's get you to a hospital."

"...don't cry..."

"...don't know...started mumbling about dying..."

"...nightmare..."

With that Remus fell asleep, unaware of the changes he wrought.


	4. Chapter 4

"Woohoo!" James screamed at the top of his lungs while clinging to his broom while it raced around a pre-set racing tracks.

The chilling wind blew through his hair and he honestly wasn't even sure how he was still attached to the broom even with his death grip on it, he should have fallen off ages ago.

 _Thank God for broom safety measures!_

When the broom finally slowed down and he could open his eyes without fear of it tearing off, he spotted his father with widest ear splitting grin he had ever seen. He managed to take one hand off the broom carefully before waving at him.

The broom jerked a little and he immediately re-attached his hand onto the broom as it picked up speed. His adrenaline thrummed with every second as he kept going faster.

His lips parted into a bright grin reflecting the one on his dad's face.

When he finally got off the broom, his blood was singing and his cheeks were flushed because of the cold and his eyes were shining with excitement.

"That was amazing! I didn't even know there was something like that! Wow!" His dad grinned down at him in response.

"This day will only get better! How about we sneak some ice cream before lunch?"

"Won't mom be mad at you?" James grinned back.

"What your mother doesn't know won't hurt her." He winked.

"C'mon!" James was already hurrying towards the ice cream stand that wasn't too far from the open-to-public bloom racing area.

"I want the strawberry flavor! That's the only one I like."

" _I want the strawberry flavor! That's the only one I like."_

" _No way! Chocolate flavor is the best. Looks like I get to educate you on the awesomeness of choco-delight!"_

" _Firstly, that's not a word. Secondly, I-mph- Nooo!"_

James licked his lips momentarily tasted chocolate chips melting in his mouth.

"Actually, I want the chocolate one now." James looked up at his dad without missing a beat. His father happily hummed while buying the ice cream.

James started licking it remembered the exact same taste.

" _Now, don't you like it?" she said with a mischievous grin._

" _No. I didn't even taste it."_

" _Oh come on! It wasn't that bad! And don't lie, I saw you eat it!"_

" _I didn't. You must have seen wrong!"_

" _No way, girl. I have amazing eyesight-wha-stop! Give me my glasses back!"_

" _Now what were you saying about your eyesight again?"_

" _Hmph."_

James silently mouthed the words, laughter bubbling through him. His past life really was fun. He had a lot of excitement then.

He glanced up at his dad and suppressed the smile rising at the thought of his humming, carefree dad of now being present then. He probably would have died from craziness overload.

He silently grabbed his father's hand with the hand not holding onto his ice cream, swinging the joined hand back and forth as they walked.

" _You really should be looking forward when you drive." The girl from before was sitting beside her and grinning that mischievous grin._

" _Yes, I know!" Her eye twitched from the same words directed her way for the nth time. Her friends high-fived right at her ear._

" _You really should be careful while driving. You never know when some asshole forgets what the signals mean or the driving rules." Another voice pitched in. She sighed again._

" _I know, I know. You guys are sitting here to make me more aware and careful, so I never cause an accident."_

" _Hey," the mischievous girl stopped grinning and it looked so odd on her face that she almost did a double take, "we don't mean it like that."_

" _We know how much you value your life." The other voice spoke up._

" _We just know you value our life a lot too. So you'll be extra careful. For us." She looked away from the road for an instant and looked at her friend's sincere face before looking back at the road._

" _Yeah…"_

 _Warm blood splattered across her face_

 _Tire screeched on the road_

 _People screamed_

" _I will."_


	5. Chapter 5

_Grimmauld Place_

"No!" A shrill voice screamed. "That's wrong! Do it again! Why can't you do even a single thing right, Regulus? Even such simple things that Sirius has completed so long ago! You should be able to do this much."

"Good thing, Sirius is the heir then, isn't it?" Walburga turned around to see Orion. Her tremendous scowl lessened.

"Yes, yes. Good thing Sirius is better than Regulus at Family Magic and History."

"He'll do the Black name proud." Orion said. Walburga's scowl disappeared for a little while before reappearing.

"But he's still bad at Rituals! How can a Black be bad at rituals? All those Dark rituals passed down for generations!"

"I-I can learn them, Mother." Regulus said meekly.

"Rituals are passed down from Head to Heir, boy." Orion glared down at Regulus. "You should just focus on your own studies." Walburga gave a dismissive sniff.

"Kreature!" She yelled.

"Yes, mistress."

"Keep Regulus in his room for the rest of today. Make sure he studies and give him food on time." Walburga turned away.

"Yes, mistress." Kreature waited for Regulus to finish rolling up his scroll and close the ink pot.

"I'll do better next time, Mother, Father." Regulus walked back to his room with Kreature. Orion watched Regulus leave with an approving look.

Moments after Regulus came inside his room, Sirius busted inside, his eyes shining with worry.

"Regulus! Are you okay? Did mother say anything? Did she hurt you?" Regulus took in his brother's slightly messy robes before sighing and giving him a small smile.

"I'm okay. They were talking about how you were terrible with rituals." Sirius' lips flattened.

"Ah, that old topic." Sirius jumped on top of Regulus' bed. "That's because they keep telling me to kill muggleborns and take their magic or bleed out all those animals. It's ridiculous." Sirius rolled his eyes.

"I offered to learn them in your stead." Regulus said hesitantly.

"What?!" Sirius stop up with alarm lining every part of his body.

"No, Regulus. You can't learn those rituals. Those-" Sirius' face twisted into an intense expression that Regulus felt uneasy just looking at.

He knew that after Sirius' elf did something that ended with her getting killed, Sirius had started getting that look more often. Sirius had loved his elf, so it must be horrifying to see her get killed. But their mother had decided to honor her service to the Black household and had her beheaded and mounted on the wall.

He wasn't sure what he could say, but he never ended up being able to help Sirius. Maybe he really should insist on learning those rituals if Sirius didn't want to. After all, if he learnt it then Mother and Father wouldn't be angry about letting go of their heritage.

A hand rubbing his hair interrupted his thoughts. He looked up at his brother. Sirius gave him a soft smile he never gave Mother or Father.

"Don't worry, Reg. I'll learn those rituals. I'll learn them all for you."

Regulus bit his lip wondering if he had said something wrong. Maybe he just shouldn't have spoken up. He seemed to cause nothing but problems.

"I'm sorry, brother. I shouldn't have said anything." Sirius's head pat became a noogie.

"Ow-owiee." Regulus started whining and Sirius grin in response.

"Didn't I say not to worry? It's okay! If they say anything to you about learning rituals anymore, just tell them I'll learn."

"O-okay, Siri." Regulus said through his tears.

"I'll make sure you're all right, brother. Don't worry about a thing." Sirius hugged his brother making sure to keep his face hidden.

He'll kill those arrogant purebloods for putting them in this kind of position. Just wait until he was the Head of the Black Family.

He'll destroy them all for this.


	6. Chapter 6

Remus opened his eyes to the bright sunlight peeking in through the curtains. He blinked a few times in a daze, his mind struggled for a minute to catch up. He yawned before rolling back to sleep.

A few minutes later he jerked up from the bed.

"I forgot!" He fumbled his way off the bed, almost falling off before he ran for his bathroom to clean up.

"I have school today." He checked up on the clothes his mother had laid out for the day and threw them on before going down to eat his delicious breakfast.

"Here you go, honey." His mother gave him a couple of toasted bread and omelette that he enjoyed thoroughly. Then she dropped him off to the nearby Muggle school.

His father was famous in the Magical World and his mother was non-magical. So he basically had the best of both worlds. The night he had regained his memories was terrifying. More terrifying than he had expected.

His father had called St. Mungo's Hospital because he thought one of his enemies had tried to harm his son. When he called for a couple Aurors to hunt down anyone in his property, they had coincidentally caught a werewolf by the name Fenrir Grayback.

He had been caught and immediately put for dementor's kiss because his father had ruthlessly pushed for it. They had brought so many of Grayback's sins to light, it was crazy.

In the end, they had no idea what he had done to Remus but no one could find a way to reverse it. They knew something was wrong due to the increase in brain activity but magic near the brain, specially for a child was a touchy subject. So they could do nothing else but wait.

Remus on the other hand, was actually healing from his nightmares. His friends had died in front of him, way before him, while he slowly bled out watching them and thinking where he had gone wrong.

He had heard an ambulance too. But in the end, he hadn't survived long enough to receive emergency treatment.

He was kind of glad that he remembered everything. He was scared but he was also really happy.

He was really glad to live, most of all. He wondered if both of his friends could have been here too. Maybe one day they would meet. Would they remember him? Or he could be the anomaly.

It would be terrifying but if he found them, he would definitely become their friend once again.


End file.
